Moving up to a "real" router

Migrating to Check Point's new 400W is a big step up from SOHO gear

Check Point's new 400W family of wireless routers (405W, 410W, 425W, and 425UW) in its  Safe@Office line are excellent routers. But are they worth two-to-five times the money you spent on your entry-level SOHO router? 

Small businesspeople are price sensitive, and Internet routers have a long list of features that network managers wonder if they really need. So when your network consultant or dealer says it's time to move up to a "real" router, should you do it?

On the low end, brands such as Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, SMC and others offer outstanding value and a long list of standard features for less than $100. The "business class" versions of routers cost around $200, often less. These upgraded routers include point-to-point VPN tunnels between two routers for remote network connections over the Internet. They include an adequate amount of security if you're not doing e-commerce and the like. Why should you spend more on a "real" router?

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Check Point's new 400W family of wireless routers (405W, 410W, 425W, and 425UW) in its  Safe@Office line are excellent routers. But are they worth two-to-five times the money you spent on your entry-level SOHO router? 

Small businesspeople are price sensitive, and Internet routers have a long list of features that network managers wonder if they really need. So when your network consultant or dealer says it's time to move up to a "real" router, should you do it?

On the low end, brands such as Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, SMC and others offer outstanding value and a long list of standard features for less than $100. The "business class" versions of routers cost around $200, often less. These upgraded routers include point-to-point VPN tunnels between two routers for remote network connections over the Internet. They include an adequate amount of security if you're not doing e-commerce and the like. Why should you spend more on a "real" router?

Better management software is worth money, and the Check Point 400W Safe@Office routers give more information than entry-level routers, such as a great logging feature showing all the security attacks repelled. All wireless routers should show active wireless connections to make it easy for you to see if someone from outside has tapped into your network, and Check Point does.

Check Point provides a variety of optional services, such as filtering e-mails for viruses and surfing filters. In the weeks I've been using the Check Point router with e-mail virus protection turned on, it’s stopped at least two dozen viruses per day from reaching one of my network clients. That's worth some money.

Other advantages that come with increased product cost include secure VPN client software for use with the Check Point router and internal wireless users, and support plans that include product replacement and automatic firmware upgrades.

There are a couple of new concepts you’ll have to get used to when stepping up to this level of router. First, prices are based on concurrent users, so the more users, the more money. The Check Point 400W series costs $499 for 5 users; $799 for 10; $1,299 for 25, and $1,999 for an unlimited number of users.

Second, Check Point Safe@Office appliances use real router controls between their wireless and wired network connections. The Linksys-type products treat their wired and wireless connections as the same network because their only router functions are between the internal network and the Internet connection port.

Check Point's 400W routers, for increased security control, define different networks for the wired, wireless and DMZ (demilitarized aone) connections as well as the Internet WAN link. This lets you control exactly what type of traffic can go between each of the networks supported by the router.

This will cause some confusion for wireless clients expecting to use Windows networking protocols (such as My Network Places) for connections to internal servers on the wired network leg, because the Windows network protocol (NetBIOS) isn't routable and can't search for wired connections from the wireless side. You have to create firewall rules to allow traffic between the two networks and then address servers by IP address directly rather than browsing for them with Windows tools (set shares to use \\10.0.1.100\NetFolder rather than \\SimpleShare\NetFolder).